News Links | December 6, 2018

System News | Opinion

The Wenatchee Valley College Foundation Board of Directors unanimously approved $478,817 in funding to support
WVC for 2018-19. The approved funding will benefit students, programs, faculty and
staff on the Wenatchee campus. ... “Thanks to our generous community donors we are
able to support the college in many ways,” said WVC Foundation Interim Executive Director
Rachel Evey. “Whether it’s helping students during financial crisis or improving the
classrooms they learn in and the equipment they use, we want to continue to empower
them to learn and grow.”Lake Chelan Mirror, Dec. 5, 2018

The Bellingham Technical College Foundation recently received a $350,000 contribution from the Thomas and Martina
Horn Foundation that will support student scholarships. This is the second largest
contribution ever received by the BTC Foundation, which provides a variety of student
scholarships and campus support as part of a mission to change lives by expanding
access to quality education.Lynden Tribune, Dec. 5, 2018

A series of free community concerts this week celebrates the 90th year of Yakima Valley College with performances of “Gloria,” a popular contemporary composition by John Rutter.
For YVC Director of Choral Activities Steven Slusher, the key to the concerts was
the participation of organist Jerry Kaminski, Director of Music at Wesley United Methodist
and St. Paul Cathedral. “I can’t believe, actually, that we get to play with him,”
says YVC music student Samantha Sugihara. “He’s just utterly fabulous. You have to
be very talented to play the organ.”KIMA, Dec. 4, 2018

Jessie Bartlett, 17, is a junior at Stanwood High School who is doing Running Start
full-time at Skagit Valley College. She participates in the North County Fire Explorer Post 697, with plans to become
a third-generation firefighter and paramedic. ... I haven’t had the easiest rite of
high school. … I just don’t like the drama of high school. To be able to be going
to the college, I just focus on my studies and have friends from the high school flooding
in and being able to talk to them. I think it’s a much better environment for me.Everett Herald, Dec. 3, 2018

Trends | Horizons | Education

One of the most difficult parts of juggling higher education and parenthood is accessing
child care. College students with children, or student parents, need somewhere for
their children to go while they attend class, complete assignments, and study. And
ideally, they would have somewhere to send their children that is conveniently located,
open for the hours they need, and affordable, as well as safe and nurturing. Student
parents tend to be short on both time and money, and challenges accessing child care
can make it more difficult for them to stay and succeed in school.New America, Dec. 6, 2018

After two years of an administration that has disavowed the Obama Education Department’s
crackdown on for-profit colleges, there’s little sign of a comeback for the sector.
On Wednesday, one of the largest credential-granting for-profit operators still standing,
Education Corporation of America, said it would close its roughly 70 campuses across
the country. Instructors and support staff at ECA chains, which include Virginia College
and Brightwood College, suddenly found themselves out of a job after Friday. And students,
who in many cases took out thousands of dollars in loans to attend ECA programs, were
left with little information about how to continue their education elsewhere.Inside Higher Ed, Dec. 6, 2018

As social inequality on American college campuses continues to spark debate, the fast-growing
use of smartphone technology is raising new questions about the divide between poor
and affluent students: Should all students have smartphones, whether or not they can
afford them? Have smartphones become as important to student success as food and housing?
Would having smartphones help low-income students be more academically successful?Inside Higher Ed, Dec. 5, 2018

The credit outlook for higher education remains negative for the second year in a
row, according to the latest report from Moody’s Investors Service. The next year
and a half is expected to be grim because of low revenue growth from tuition, the
primary source of revenue for colleges and universities, says the report, which was
released on Tuesday by the credit-rating agency. Other sources of revenue, such as
state funding for public colleges, should be stable, but Moody’s predicts that operating
expenses will outpace revenue growth at most institutions. “Operating revenue growth
will remain low for many four-year colleges and universities over the outlook period,
resulting in continued challenging business conditions,” wrote Susan Shaffer, a Moody’s
vice president, in the report. Concerns about “affordability and return on investment”
also will constrain the growth of tuition revenue, according to the report.The Chronicle of Higher Education, Dec. 4, 2018

Ferry County in northeastern Washington spans more than 2,200 square miles of mostly
forestland, rivers and lakes. And according to the Federal Communications Commission,
everyone in the sprawling county has access to broadband internet. But that is not
the reality experienced by the roughly 7,500 residents of this county, which is rich
in natural beauty but internet-poor. ... Fast internet service is crucial to the modern
economy, and closing the digital divide is seen as a step toward shrinking the persistent
gaps in economic opportunity, educational achievement and health outcomes in the U.S.The Seattle Times, Dec. 4, 2018

Politics | Local, State, National

The U.S. Department of Education recently announced it would miss a key deadline to
repeal an Obama administration rule that seeks to hold career-education programs accountable
for producing graduates with unmanageable debt. Doing away with the so-called gainful-employment
regulation is a top priority of the Trump administration. But the blown deadline means
the rule will remain on the books until at least 2020. ... The reason, department
officials said, is that the agency that supplied essential data on graduates' earnings
for the gainful-employment rule is no longer cooperating with the department. The
U.S. Social Security Administration, which provided the data until this year, has
let an information-sharing agreement with the department lapse.Inside Higher Ed, Dec. 6, 2018